Voices In A Mask

For the second time in history, masks have become the symbol of a global pandemic. The facial front lines differ in shape and size and are fashioned to the users’ desires, reaching from African prints to floral patterns. But are masks solely ‘germ-shields’ or ‘dirt-traps’ as referred to a century ago? What does the choice of fabric actually reveal about its wearer? And in which way are differences ‘un_masked’? Authors, academics and activists from different backgrounds share their ideas on the historical, political, religious, racial and cultural, as well as on the intersectional dimension of masks. Similar to W.E.B. Du Bois metaphor of ‘the veil’, which solely exists in people’s minds, masks can be seen as the physical manifestation of the inner and outer world, the speakable and the unspoken. With texts by Logan February, Precious Colette Kemigisha, Olumide Popoola, Djamila Ribeiro, Jeferson Tenório und Sheree Renée Thomas. A publication of the Literary Colloquium Berlin with the kind support of the Federal Foreign Office. Natasha A. Kelly has a PhD in Communication Studies and Sociology with a research focus on Black German Studies. Her award-winning and internationally acclaimed documentary "Millis Awakening" was commissioned by the 10th Berlin Biennale in 2018. Based on her book "Sisters & Souls" (2015) she has been directing the sequential theater performance "M(a)y Sister" since 2016. Her dissertation "Afroculture. The Space between Yesterday and Tomorrow" (2016) was staged in three countries and three languages in 2019/20. Her latest publication "The Comet – Afrofuturism 2.0" (2020) is a documentary of the Black speculative arts symposium which she curated at the HAU Hebbel am Ufer Theater in Berlin. http://www.natashaakelly.com

Cass and her mom have always stood on their own against the world. Then Cass learns she had a grandmother, one who was never part of her life, one who has just died and left her and her mother the first house they could call their own. But with it comes more questions than answers: Why is her Mom so determined not to live there? Why was this relative kept so secret? And what is the unusual mask, forgotten in a drawer, trying to tell her? Strange dreams, strange voices, and strange incidents all lead Cass closer to solving the mystery and making connections she never dreamed she had.

Based on images of disguise in literature, theater, and opera, this short-story cycle explores themes of identity and subterfuge in a fictional fugue that ranges from comic to poignant. Into the librettos of Don Giovanni, Tosca, Rigoletto, and other operas, Green weaves the authentic biographies of their singers and composers, modern-day settings, and his own imaginative twists. Throughout Voices in a Mask, characters obscure and reveal themselves as art mimics life and life, art. Ultimately the very acts of masking and projecting reveal a truth about the power of art and its inherent deceptions.

From Book 1, City of Masks: When a royal conspiracy topples the noble House Falco, Sofia must take up the burden of her father's mantle and assume guardianship of his Greatmask. Yet the sentient bone mask, powerful enough to Compel those around her, will not speak, and Sofia, the first female Protector in a hundred years, is left defenceless. Hunted by the king, she is driven from the palace and must fight for survival, alone in the cold streets of Anaskar. There, she crosses paths with Notch, a bitter mercenary with problems of his own. Accused of murder, Notch is trying to clear his name while hunted by the city's robed assassins, the very people who are now searching for Sofia. To take back their city and cast down the tyrant on the throne, Sofia and Notch must face the blades of Anaskar's assassins, the rage of a mighty sea beast, and the mysterious Lupo, a man with a Greatmask of his own, who has masterminded vicious terrorist attacks on the city that spurned him. Their struggle threatens to tear the city – and the kingdom - into shreds. Books 1-3 of the Bone Mask Cycle available in one set!

At 30 years old, Lewis Howes was outwardly thriving but unfulfilled inside. He was a successful athlete and businessman, achieving goals beyond his wildest dreams, but he felt empty, angry, frustrated, and always chasing something that was never enough. His whole identity had been built on misguided beliefs about what "masculinity" was. Howes began a personal journey to find inner peace and to uncover the many masks that men – young and old – wear. In The Mask of Masculinity, Howes exposes the ultimate emptiness of the Material Mask, the man who chases wealth above all things; the cowering vulnerability that hides behind the Joker and Stoic Masks of men who never show real emotion; and the destructiveness of the Invincible and Aggressive Masks worn by men who take insane risks or can never back down from a fight. He teaches men how to break through the walls that hold them back and shows women how they can better understand the men in their lives. It's not easy, but if you want to love, be loved and live a great life, then it's an odyssey of self-discovery that all modern men must make. This book is a must-read for every man – and for every woman who loves a man.

This collection of essays approaches "voice" as a means of expression that lives in the interactions of writers, readers, and language, and examines the conceptualizations of voice within the oral rhetorical and expressionist traditions, and the notion of voice as both a singular and plural phenomenon. An explanatory introduction by the editor is followed by 19 essays: (1) "What Do We Mean When We Talk about Voice in Texts?" (Peter Elbow); (2) "Claiming My Voice" (Toby Fulwiler); (3) "Coming to Voice" (Gail Summerskill Cummins); (4) "Affect and Effect in Voice" (Doug Minnerly); (5) "Technical Texts/Personal Voice: Intersections and Crossed Purposes" (Nancy Allen and Deborah S. Bosley); (6) "Voices in the News" (Meg Morgan); (7) "The Chameleon 'I': On Voice and Personality in the Personal Essay" (Carl H. Klaus); (8) "The Difference It Makes to Speak: The Voice of Authority in Joan Didion" (Laura Julier); (9) "Teaching Voice" (Margaret K. Woodworth); (10) "Classroom Voices" (Paula Gillespie); (11) "Voice as Muse, Message, and Medium: The Views of Deaf College Students" (John A. Albertini and others); (12) "Varieties of the 'Other': Voice and Native American Culture" (Tom Carr); (13) "East Asian Voices and the Expression of Cultural Ethos" (John H. Powers and Gwendolyn Gong); (14) "Voice and the Naming of Woman" (Susan Brown Carlton); (15) "Voicing the Self: Toward a Pedagogy of Resistance in a Postmodern Age" (Randall R. Freisinger); (16) "The Virtual Voice of Network Culture" (Mark Zamierowski); (17) "Concluding the Text: Notes toward a Theory and the Practice of Voice" (Kathleen Blake Yancey and Michael Spooner); and (18) "An Annotated and Collective Bibliography of Voice: Soundings from the Voices Within" (Peter Elbow and Kathleen Blake Yancey). (NKA)